A year after Deutsche Post DHL chose single multinational
providers for its agency and online booking services, the logistics and mail
distribution company in 2011 boosted compliance to its hotel program by
expanding its inventory and emphasizing security to its travelers.

DHL in 2010 consolidated its program, which covers most
countries in the world, to solely use Carlson Wagonlit Travel and Cliqbook. Within
six weeks, adoption had moved from a high of about 30 percent to more than 80
percent, said Michelle Hunt, DHL's travel manager for the Americas.

From there, DHL turned its focus to hotel compliance. DHL travelers
often were spot-buying, trying to find online deals better than DHL's
negotiated hotel rates, often thinking they were acting in the company's
interest during difficult economic times, Hunt said.

"We started looking at it from a safety and security
perspective," she said. "When something happens anywhere in the
world, we have someone there. We wanted to educate them that our rates may be
higher than the spot buys, but we can help them out if we need to provide
security in an emergency."

Part of the strategy was to make the hotel program more
inclusive, Hunt said. If a hotel a traveler wanted to use did not appear in the
booking tool, DHL encouraged the traveler to let the travel team know. The team
then would evaluate including that hotel in the program.

The company also implemented reason codes to determine why
travelers were not booking hotels alongside air reservations requiring an
overnight stay. CWT's systems also send travelers a reminder to book a hotel,
Hunt said.

"We'll know if they're going to another site, or if
they have their own local agreement, we can get that in the program," she
said. "This way we can both educate them and know where they are."

Additionally, DHL has used quarterly reviews to communicate
the value of its hotel program to both travelers and executives. In the second
quarter of 2011, for example, its average hotel rates were 31 percent lower
than CWT's U.S. benchmark and 7 percent below its international rate.

Following its efforts, DHL's hotel compliance has climbed
steadily. Hotel compliance in 2009 was at 29 percent and rose to 38 percent in
2010. As of the midpoint of 2011, it stands at 53 percent.

Hunt acknowledges that she still has work to do in boosting
compliance levels even higher and hopes to continue closing that gap through
continued monitoring of exception codes and partnering with DHL's security
team.

"Now we can focus on that last 50 percent," she
said. "Travelers want to do the right thing, so if you educate them and
make it easy for them, it's a win-win for everybody."

Comments

“Sunday night is when it will break loose.” That's when Sykes Enterprises business travelers try to
check in using virtual cards en masse. “We’ll get a call from someone stuck in
the lobby because [the hotel] won’t accept the virtual payment,” said Sykes Enterprises
director of global finance and travel services Alan Mazzola. It turns out the very same features that lend virtual cards their lauded security also can cause havoc at the check-in counter, where hotel systems and staff may not know how to process them.

One might assume that Gary Kessler, president
and CEO of ground transportation network Carey International, is not a fan
of Uber and its fellow on-demand transportation apps. Kessler, however, says
the industry owes a bit of gratitude to such disruptors. As travel buyers confront
the apps' policy and security ramifications, he says, they also want to
discuss ground transportation and duty of care. At the same time, suppliers
like Carey have reevaluated their own services and tech.

Since Southwest launched flights from Atlanta
three years ago, the low-cost carrier has expanded and solidified its position
there, not to mention across the United States. Its rise provides travel buyers
a bit more negotiating power in their dealings with major carriers, and that’s
a boon especially for small and midmarket buyers, for whom the sharing economy
also has the potential to make a big bottom-line impact. Meetings, too, take up
a good amount of room in the brains of those charged with keeping travel
expenses on a leash. Four midmarket buyers hashed it all out.

Regional network OneJet is using smaller, twin-engine jets to connect markets that offer corporate demand but few nonstop options. Over a month in, it connects Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh. OneJet president and CEO Matt Maguire walked BTN transportation editor Michael B. Baker through the business model that will fill the hole left behind by major airlines’ hub consolidation.

One of the trailblazers of global travel
management and the architect of the follow-the-sun concept of having one
agency, one global distribution system, one online booking tool and one credit
card, with operations consolidated through international service centers, Bob Feltre recently retired as head of
travel procurement for General Electric. Feltre, who worked for GE for 36 years
and spent more than 20 of those driving multinational travel management
efficiency, spoke with BTN editorial director David Meyer.